I've had problems putting down every buffalo I've killed prior to my Tanzania trip. I moved up from a 375 to a 416 hoping to give myself a little more power. The first buffalo I killed in Tanzania dropped like a sack of potatoes to a bullet placed just under the chin. My buffalo jinx was over. At least for a while.

Here's buffalo number one:


The second buffalo was a different story. My first shot hit him in the left shoulder. After the shot he turned to follow four other bulls up a little hill. I didn't get a clear shot again until he was about 150 yards away.

I shot at him four more times from 150 to 250 yards away. I knew I had hit him at least one additional time but the other shots looked to either be misses or had no effect.

We followed him and closed the range. I shot at him four more times from 50 yards closing to 25 yards. All of these shots were good hits. He didn't drop until I hit him with that ninth shot.

It turns out eight of my nine shots hit him. Five in the left shoulder, two in the right shoulder and one through the guts. The shots were a combination of solids and softs. Here's a picture of the left shoulder:



Here are two more photos of the second bull. He's quite a bruiser. It saddens me to think I'll probably hunt the rest of my life and never get a shot at one better - but I'll try.





I think hunting these boys is hunting at its finest.

Forrest,

Great story. Give us some detail on that .416. That's one good looking rifle.

Regards,

Terry

Holy smokes! Those critters are well fed.

Nice job.

Ski+3

ForrestB,

Your hunt just keeps getting better & better. I am really enjoying your pics and stories.

What a great pair of Buff!

Like Terry I also want to hear more about your rifle. It's a great looking weapon.

Regards,
Dave

[ 11-14-2003, 02:28: Message edited by: DavidC ]

Super buffs!! And the rifle looks like a whale of a goody too!! Let us know loads and what your express rifle is. Congrats. Thanks for sharing with us as well.

Nice Buff!
It certainly gives you pause when you shoot those buggers with a big gun and it has very little effect on them

Forrest,

You certainly are a cruel person. These lttle bits and peices of this great safri are killing me. What other marvelous trophies did you take?

The rifle is a 416 Rigby built by Joe Smithson. The action is an old Oberndorf single squarebridge magnum mauser. The barrel is machined octagon to round with an integral quarter rib. It has a turkish walnut stock. Joe made from scratch a beautiful set of claw mounts for the rifle as well. The scope is a Swarovski PH 1.25 - 4X.

I was shooting 410 gr Woodleigh Softs and 400 gr Barnes solids over about 98 grains of RL-22. Both loads are moving about 2425 fps. I really liked the performance of the Woodleigh softs.

We recovered one soft that went hit the lion at the base of the tail, broke the spine at the pelvis, took off the top of the heart, broke some ribs and lodged in the left front shoulder. That covers about 5 or 6 feet of lion. On the first buffalo a soft broke his neck on the way in, messed up the top of the heart, tore up the liver, and ended up somewhere in the guts. That covers about 5 feet of buffalo.

I heard it said that Woodleighs have a reputation for being "soft" (which I wanted for the lion) but I saw no evidence of that.

I'll try to get some pics uploaded and post a plainsgame thread also.

ForrestB,

Please include some close up photos of that rifle!

Are the scope mounts you are referring to the new Smithson Blackburn QD rings?

Regards,
Dave

David, here are a couple of pics. They really don't show the claw mounts in all their detail though. You'll see though they are not the Smithson/Talley Rings.

That is a sweet rig.

Congratulations again.

PAULUS

Amazing that he took so many good hits before falling over. Congratulations again!

Once a Buff pumps a few liters of adrenaline then he can be tough to kill and going to a larger caliber won't do it either..He is just going to die when he feels like it...shooting one under the chin is pretty final with any caliber...Woodleighs are a great bullet, I use the 450 gr. Woodleigh this year and I like it better than the 400 and 410 gr. bullets..better penitration and larger cross section of expanded bullet it appeared..I recovered about 4 of them..but my choice of 416 bullets so far is the Nosler 400 gr.....it is very tough bullet and will nearly always leave an exit...

Forest,

Who were you hunting with in Tanzania? Which area?

My gosh, what a beast!

How many of your shots at number two were softs? Do you think youd have been better off shooting all woodleighs?

Andy

Forrest,

Great pictures, I always thought of the buff being coal black, but your bulls look brindle in coat. Very nice trophies and I am sure fine memories.

BigBullet

Forrest,

Nice rifle, great story and Awesome buff! Thanks for sharing.

Rusty
We band of brothers!

Andy, I was hunting with Ridge Taylor. The two buffalo came from different areas, both on the east side of Tarangire National Park. The first bull came from Masai West (Lobo Camp), and the second from Lokasalie.

Lobo has some permanent water and resident buffalo herds during the dry season. Lokasalie has only a few seep springs that the elephant attempt to monopolize. There are few buffalo during the dry season, but many once the grass greens up.

At Lobo we saw buffalo almost everyday but I didn't take a shot until the 10th day. At Lokasalie, I saw a total of 6 bulls during my time there. Three of the six bulls were shooters.

BigBullet, likewise, I always have thought of buffalo as being coal black. These bulls are black, but are showing a lot of skin that makes them look brindled as you described. I was surprised at the color variation of the buffalo in the area we were hunting, especially the cows. We saw blacks, browns and reds. It took me a while to adjust to looking for browns and reds when we were looking for buffalo in tight cover. The biggest bulls were invariably black though.

Another thing that was different for me was the horn development. Prior to this trip, I've only hunted in Botswana. In Bots, if you saw a piece of really heavy horn it was always connected to a big solid boss. In TZ, I would see a bit of heavy, thick horn and often it would turn out to be connected to a soft boss or even a cow. We saw a genuine 50 inch cow. She might even be closer to 52", a real freak.

In Botswana it seems like the boss develops before or along with the rest of the horns. In TZ it seems like the boss develops much more slowly than the rest of the horns. I'd love to hear some opinion from the experts here.

You were using too much gun! A 7x57 would have been just right! Your first buff has been working out hasn't he?